Why no Euro gold and silver bullion?

JDelage

I realize that the various countries have minted Euro-denominated commems, but I'm surprised the EU has not decided to mint "official" Euro bullions. They could follow the same rules as the base Euros (1 side is the same for all countries, 1 side is specific) - that should have a high appeal for collectors, no?

trozau

Austria gold Philharmonic used to be denominated in Schillings but is now denominated in Euros. (2,000 Schillings or 100 Euros for the 1 troy ounce .9999 gold coin). No silver bullion that I am aware of.

Sapyx

As trozau stated, pretty much every country in the euro-zone has the right to issue their own bullion and collector NCLTs denominated in euros. The bullion coins and collector NCLTs are the only places euro-countries have left where they can express themselves and put whatever they want on the coins, so there's no pressure from them to issue standardised designs and denominations.

And the European Central Bank is only interested in the mega-economic side of issuing the currency, happy to leave us, the coin-collecting minority, under the responsibility of the national mints. I suppose a private mint corporation (like Pobjoy) could go to the ECB and put a proposal for such a coin issue, but the final yea or nay would still have to go to each member country's finance departments for approval. Pobjoy would have to decide whether the collector interest (and profit) would be worth all the trouble.

It may come in time. It would probably start with a few countries issuing joint commemoratives to celebrate some event common to those countries, but apart from the euro itself there's very little all the euro-zone countries have in common to commemorate. Maybe in 2012 we'll see a set of "10th anniversary of the euro" commemoratives?

Here's a fascinating link to an official site explaining the ins and outs of euro coin and note issue. There are links there to other issues of possible interest to darksiders, like the status of Andorra, French overseas territories, etc.